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Elsewhere in college

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My daughter is plainly trying to process the fact that her best friend from 4th grade on is joining a sorority at Wisconsin. It’s also clear that there is a world of difference between how U Wisconsin and Vassar are handling student quarantine

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There's a world of difference between how U Wisconsin and Vassar are handling anything and everything.

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My daughter told me that she and her roommate had a couple of girls from the dorm watching the VP debate with them and they were all masked up just in case, and said bestie FaceTimed while having a beer in someone else’s room with other folks, not a mask in sight. It really is a local culture issue. Vassar has a lower active case / positive rest rate than the county at large and the mayor of Madison wants the Badgers to be sent home...

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Saw this on reddit about best friends. Pretty cute.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5lENnRGei8&ab_channel=Happily

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And yes, I think there definitely is a difference in the way schools are trying to handle quarantine. I'm not sure how elite Wisconsin is, but to me it seems like there is a difference in the way quarantining is handled between elite schools and non-elite schools.

Although I will have to say that Vandy claimed to not allow any non-residents into the dorm buildings but they clearly aren't doing that. They are, however, supposedly applying harsh penalties for students that organize gatherings where more than 6 are invited. There were at least a couple of off-campus resident parties that were busted.

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It's become apparent in comparing some institutions and communities that buy-in is the key component. Yes. good protocols are important, but reasonable behavior and use of even rudimentary equipment is still far better and more effective than reckless behavior and carelessness if not outright stupidity.

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At Vandy there were students that weren't adhering. In the freshman complex they were having nightly "scheduled" gatherings, always around 930. I think they started out in smaller groups but as people went around group to group it became just a large gathering. So Vandy sent out something to students and parents basically saying if you break the guidelines it can result in suspension for the semester (even if it's the first offense) and no refund on tuition or housing. I assume it got better since I haven't seen any such emails since.

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Kansas Coach Les Miles tests positive for Covid. No symptoms so far.

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Kansas already had this weekend off. They hope to get back to semi-normal by next week's game at WV.

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Hopefully no one else ate the grass.

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They have turf.

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I could see Les Miles still trying to eat turf...

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Mill

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Pebble Mill studios was the BBC’s outpost in Birmingham for ~30 years

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Detective Mills...John Doe...t-shirts...gluttony, greed, sloth, lust, pride, envy, wrath

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Mike Mills

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- Valley

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OUR CRUMBLING DEMOCRACY

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Earlier this summer, the Feds in Portland decided to erect what amounted to fencing, barricades, and enclosures. They didn't bother to submit a plan or get a permit, much less have it inspected. Not surprisingly, it doesn't meet code.

That might be overlooked if they kept it on their own property, but its partially on other peoples' property, and on city property, and is obstructing the public right of way.

As a result they were fined for code violations, and assessed additional fines for not mitigating the violations, either correcting them, or removing them.

Yesterday, they declared they weren't going to comply.

None of this is all that surprising, or unusual; code violations aren't an uncommon occurrence.

What was surprising was the reason stated for not complying. The claim is the US Constitution allows them to do so.

?!

Its been a while, but while I was in school, we went over every article and amendment to the US Constitution. I don't remember (and I would something this strange!) any amendment that authorizes anyone to commit code violations! (Does anyone with more recent constitutional scholarly efforts have new insight into any new amendment to this affect?)

It seems that anymore, anytime someone wants to do something illegal, standard practice is to claim the constitution allows it, and that seemingly is a free pass.

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That sounds sketchy but I’m certainly not a constitutional lawyer

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Arlington County has already surpassed the number of absentee and early votes as compared to 2016. Almost 40,000 have already voted and the total vote in 2016 was around 120,000. Arlington is much like the Bay Area in how it votes so appears the anti-Trump mood is high.

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Yeah but how many will be invalidated. I'm curious when counties or states start releasing the numbers.

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In the immediate DMV area I don’t see that being an issue.

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In Arlington, Virginia, I expect few, if any, problems. In Arlington, Iowa, near where my sister lives I make no guarantees.

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PRO

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Tampa joins Atlanta in saying you win in the post season with pitching and defense. Not that the Astros and Dodgers aren't pretty good at that too, but the LCS will be classic contrasts in style.

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Relentless Dodgers overwhelm Padres to complete NLDS sweep

https://www.truebluela.com/2020/10/8/21508692/dodgers-offense-overwhelming-julio-urias-padres-sweep

The Dodgers proved to be too good for an understaffed Padres team, and good enough to overcome trying to be too cute by half with their own pitching staff. Los Angeles won 12-3 in Game 3, completing the sweep of the NLDS to remain undefeated this postseason.

Next stop for the Dodgers is their fourth NLCS in five seasons, where they play the formidable Braves.

To get there, the Dodgers relied on a relentless offense that just kept coming at a Padres pitching staff without its two best starters for all but one inning this postseason. Adrián Morejón started this bullpen game for San Diego, and made it two batters into the third inning. After Morejon came more runs for the Dodgers, who scored five in the inning to take control.

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The Yankees beat the Blue Rays to set up a winner take all game this evening in the only second round series still going. Tampa Bay dominated the regular season series, and have a nearly endless pitching staff, but it is the Yankees they are dealing with.

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And Gerrit Cole is scheduled to start for NY, so I'm not optimistic for TB's chances, which looked so good going into the series.

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Tampa Bay takes down New York, winning 2-1. It's the 20th 1 run decision the Blue Rays have been involved in this year, and they have won 15 of them. 11-4 against the Yankees this year.

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I am sad the Yankees lost :(

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Rematch with Houston from last year's post-season when the Astros eliminated the Blue Rays.

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Atlanta shuts out Miami (again), sweeping another series. The Braves have only been scored on in 1 game so far in the post-season. They will meet the Dodgers in the NLCS, the Braves' first appearance since 2001.

LA put San Diego out of their misery, completing their sweep decisively.

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GBBR

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Houston pounds Oakland into submission, eliminating the As.

This is what I expected; the several times I saw each team during the regular season, I couldn't figure out how the A's record was as good as it was, or why the Astros' was as poor as it was. The eye test did not align with results. Come the post-season, it did. Perhaps a focus or priority issue with Houston?

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Small sample size? I think you could pull out a similar mediocre stretch of 40 games out of any previous successful Astros season.

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Possibly, but by the time we got to 60 games, that's well over 1/3 of a historic season.

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Oh, here we go: https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/30064947/so-houston-astros-headed-another-alcs-how-angry-be

"Consider the Astros' worst 60-game stretches over the past three seasons -- seasons in which they won 100-plus games each year:

2017: 29-31 (July 6-Sept. 13, minus-5 run differential)

2018: 33-27 (June 20-Aug. 31, plus-54 run differential)

2019: 35-25 (June 7-Aug. 17, plus-80 run differential)"

So there you go, 2017 had a similar stretch.

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You just never really know. Last year the Nats started 19-31 and many fans wanted Davey Martinez gone. Not so much after the WS.

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CAL

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Under the radar Cal freshman RB recruit Ashton Stredick ran for 6400 yards in his career with 88 TDs and 3100 yards last season out of Texas. Very quick and elusive.

https://www.hudl.com/profile/9660575/Ashton-Stredick

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I didn't see any footage of catching or blocking, but his ability to cut and burst is pretty damn impressive!

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Kid looks like he can make an impact

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The hudl page says he runs a 4.48 40 but the video shows elusiveness as well

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Cal remains hopeful that it can start camp today, but apparently not finalized.

Colorado has gotten clearance from Boulder county to resume practice, and both USC & UCLA have gotten clearance. Stanford still can't get permission from Santa Clara county, so they are packing up the football team and heading ~4 miles up the road to Woodside HS, which is in San Mateo county (the Santa Clara county line is right at the north end of the Stanford campus).

That makes 11 of the 12 teams in the Pac-12 set to begin practice today. Only Cal (where else than in Berkeley?) is still struggling to get clearance to practice somewhere.

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We've got the green light, let's gooooo!

(I still don't feel great about holding games this year)

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Is there any source for this news?

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Wilner posted it on Twitter.

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Thanks

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Cal approved for practices with groups of up to 75. Not sure if that includes players, etc., which might mean splitting the Offense from the Defense (doable), but practice is on for this afternoon.

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GO Bears!

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